No need to panic, debit cards are safe: Finance Ministry

No need to panic, debit cards are safe: Finance Ministry

Seeking to calm worried customers following feared security breach of over 32 lakh debit cards of various banks, Finance Ministry today said they constitute only a small number of the total such cards which are “completely safe”, with no need for panic.

“Only about 0.5 per cent of total debit card details were compromised while remaining 99.5 cards are completely safe and bank customers should not panic,” Department of Financial Services Additional Secretary G C Murmu told PTI.

There are around 60 crore debit cards operational in India, of which 19 crore are indigenously developed RuPay cards while the rest are Visa and Master Card enabled.

Since the data compromise has taken place from specific machine and specific time period, so it is just a limited issue and banks have asked their affected customers to replace their card or change PIN, he said, adding that other cards are not affected at all.

A Canara Bank message to a customer said: “In view of security reasons…Please change the ATM pin immediately. In case not adhered to, we will be blocking the existing card on 21-OCT-2016.”

Murmu said data of the users who have transacted from ATM machines of Hitachi have been compromised during the month of May, June and July.